Wine Making

Geoff and Susan Bull first planted
vines at this site in 1979. Geoff and Susan developed the site
over the next two decades establishing a small winery and tasting
area. Freycinet Vineyard won a number of national show awards
during this time and established a reputation as one of
Australia's premier producers of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Since 1992, daughter Lindy Bull and partner Claudio Radenti have
continued the family winemaking tradition with their three children;
Giorgio Geoffrey (13 years), Pino Joseph (10 years) and Pia Susan (6
years). Lindy and Claudio are passionate about their vineyard and are extremely focussed on maximising quality
from it year on year.

The Freycinet Vineyards are beautifully situated on the
sloping hillsides of a small valley. The soils are brown
demosol on top of Jurassic dolerite, and the combination of aspect,
slope, soil and heat summation produces red grapes with unusual
depth of colour and ripe flavours. One of Australia's foremost
producers of Pinot Noir, with a wholly enviable track record of
consistency - rare in such a temperamental variety.

-James Halliday - Australian Wine Companion, 2010.

The cool Tasmanian climate in combination with our unique
vineyard site provide ideal conditions for fine, elegant yet
powerful wines. Situated on the 42 degrees latitudinal line,
the vineyard overlooks the spectacular Freycinet Peninsula and is
approximately 100m above sea level and just 20km from the coast.
The average annual rainfall is around 700mm (except in drought
years).

Our vineyard boasts some features which facilitate the ripening
potential of the site. The total size of the vineyard is 14.83
hectares.

Perched on some gentle slopes in a small sheltered valley, the
original Vineyard site has sometimes been described as an
amphitheatre and heat trap. This 4.0 Ha amiphitheatre site,
comprising The Hill and The Paddock contains the original plantings
which form the base of our flagship Freycinet range of wines.

The amiphitheatre's slopes provide enhanced sunlight interception
and warmth as well as cold air drainage which eliminate menacing
late spring frosts. It is not uncommon for our fruit to be
harvested two to three weeks earlier than many other Tasmanian
vineyards, due to the extra warmth of the site. This can be
particularly beneficial, especially in the slightly cooler, wetter
and lower sunshine seasons. The surrounding hills also protect
against the prevailing westerly winds.

The north facing slope of the amphitheatre has brown dermosol
soils over Jurassic dolerite (i.e.: warm, shallow, stony and free
draining with clay/loam texture) while the south facing slope
has black vertosol - i.e.: black, crackling alkaline clay with good
water holding capacity.

The
Amphitheatre Site

In 1995, a second vineyard was added to form the base of our
popular Louis range of wines - comprising the blended lighter,
sweeter Riesling, the unwooded Chardonnay and the lighter, earlier
drinking Pinot Noir. The 4 Ha Louis vineyard site was planted
300 meters away, lower down the valley adjacent to the original
Amphitheatre Hill site, on a more gentle north to east facing
slope.

A third vineyard site (Synotts) comprising 1 Ha was planted in
1995 and is 4kms west of the amphitheatre site. This is a
classic continental climate site i.e: considerably cooler in winter
and warmer in summer and forms the base of our award-winning Radenti
Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay. The Louis and Synotts sites
have brown dermosol soils.

In 2012 we acquired the neighbouring 42 Ha Coombend property from
Browns Brothers the Victorian based winemaker. This includes
5.75 Ha of vineyard and 4.2 Ha of Olive Grove. We are thrilled
with this purchase as it gives us highway frontage onto the busy
Tasman Highway, and it proves scope for future generations of the
family to expand should they wish to do so. We look forward to
offering stunning Wineglass Bay Sauvignon Blanc and Freycinet Olive Oil
in the future!

Grape Type

Total Ha Planted

Clone Type

Vineyard Site

Pinot Noir

2.94

G5V15, 114, 115, 777
G5V15, 114, 115
G5V15

Amphitheatre Hill
Louis
Synotts

Chardonnay

4.0

II0V3, G9V7

Amphitheatre Hill
Amphitheatre Paddock
Louis
Synotts

Riesling

2.42

F8V13, D2V3

Amphitheatre Hill
Louis
Block 4

Cabernet Sauvignon

1.81

G9V3, BX5186

Amphitheatre Hill
Block 4

Merlot

0.35

D3V14

Amphitheatre Paddock

Schönburger

0.06

Louis

Sauvignon Blanc

2.78

Block 4

Cabernet Franc

0.27

Block 4

Shiraz

0.20

Block 4

All our vine stocks have been sourced from the Tasmanian
Department of Primary Industries who in turn received them from the
CSIRO as disease-free clonal material.

Each vineyard site has been set up on a Lyre trellis system except
for Synotts, which is on an adapted Sylvos system that provides
frost free, disease free conditions as well as enabling easier
pruning. Geoff Bull became convinced of the benefits of the
Lyre trellis system having had the privilege of attending a workshop
with Graham Wiltshire of the then Heemskerk winery who explained the
adapted carbonneau split-trellis system developed by Professor Alain
Carbonneau to provide better quality grapes with easier pruning.

In 1993, we commenced using screw caps, initially for the
Freycinet Riesling and progressively for each of the wines, so that
by 2005 all our wines were bottled with screw caps, except for the
Radenti Sparkling.

The key and our goal in the vineyard is to grow a moderate yield
of fully ripened healthy fruit from well balanced vines.
Considerable manual work is carried out in the form of hand pruning,
shoot thinning/positioning, leaf plucking and hand picking in order
to achieve this. The vine root systems are well established
now, virtually eliminating the need to irrigate.

The Vineyard yields approximately 100 tons of fruit depending
on the season and all the wine is vinified in our rustic looking
Winery equipped with state of the art equipment. The
winemaker's thumbprint is minimal in order to showcase the fruit,
the Vineyard's terroir and the season's characteristics. Our
wines are 100% grown, vinified and bottled on our estate with
passion and dedication and in the spirit of true Vignerons.